To ensure that nothing is lost in translation, Yukihiko Yaguchi pulls out his iPhone and scrolls through the photos. The chief engineer of the 2016 Lexus GS F stops on a pic of a mid-90s Toyota Chaser—a Japanese-market mid-size sedan—sporting a tiger decal on the hood and orange stripes across its roof and flanks. It’s a Japanese Touring Car Championship racer in which Yaguchi scored seat time back in 2000, but the experience sticks with him today as one of several race cars that inspired each of the Lexus F cars he’s developed.

A proper race car, Yaguchi says, is easy to drive fast. And that is exactly what he wants drivers to say about his new GS F.

Yaguchi doesn’t obsess over top speeds and quarter-mile times. Like the engines in the original IS F, the stratospheric LFA, and the RC F coupe, this 5.0-liter V-8 makes power without assistance from blowers. That’s a polite way of saying it’s down on oomph—in a big way—relative to the competition. The engine, shared with the RC F, makes its power with revs, churning out 467 horsepower at an elevated 7100 rpm and 389 pound-feet of torque at 4800 rpm. The BMW M5 produces 560 horsepower; the 2016 Cadillac CTS-V, 640 horsepower.

The satisfaction Yaguchi aims for is of the back-road variety, the kind that lets you blitz a two-lane without fear of ending your ride in someone’s living room. It’s stability and predictability—the confidence to approach the car’s limits. If the RC Fs we’ve driven are any indication, it also means a safe chassis setup that prefers to keep the tail behind the nose of the car.

There are no adaptive dampers, and because the GS is a sedan, we’re told the ride quality will be slightly more compliant than that of the RC F coupe. Power gets to the ground through an eight-speed automatic and a torque-vectoring differential. Grip comes by way of Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires, meas­uring 255/35 in front and 275/35 out back, wrapped around 19-inch forged aluminum wheels. Six-piston calipers—orange paint optional—pinch 15-inch rotors in front.

Lexus claims that the GS F is 76 pounds heavier than the RC F, which would put the four-door at a touch over 4100 pounds. So the GS F is at the low end of its class, though not low enough to offset the hefty power disparity. Of course, even the back of the pack is fleet-footed these days. We predict a zero-to-60 sprint of 4.4 seconds on the way to a 12.9-second quarter-mile.

In keeping with current Lexus style, the GS F makes its presence known with a yawning hourglass grille stretching from hood to asphalt. Around back, there’s a carbon-fiber lip spoiler, gloss-black diffuser, and stacked exhausts. The cabin is dressed with carbon-fiber accents; the parts-bin F steering wheel; and a huge, centrally mounted tachometer. The new seats are contoured, stitched, and perforated to look like skintight athletic apparel.

Whether or not the GS F cracks open a niche for luxury sports sedans that favor finesse over outright power, Yaguchi will soon have fresh photos on his iPhone for inspiration. At the Detroit auto show, the GS F shared the stage with his other project, the fat-fendered RC F GT3 race car that will likely compete in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and Europe’s FIA GT3 series. At 2800 pounds and with its 5.0-liter V-8 cranking out 550 horsepower, it has the weight-to-power ratio of a hypercar. Progress is well and truly underway.

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